252 BRO WN-HEADED NUTHA TCH. 



with black ; the hairs that cover the nostrils are of a pale 

 cream colour ; the bill, deep slate. But what forms the most 

 distinguishing peculiarity of this bird is a fine line of vermi- 

 lion on each side of the head, seldom occupying more than 

 the edge of a single feather. The female is destitute of this 

 ornament ; but, in the rest of her plumage, differs in nothing 

 from the male. The iris of the eye, in both, was hazel. 



The stomachs of all those I opened were filled with small 

 black insects and fragments of large beetles. The posterior 

 extremities of the tongue reached nearly to the base of the 

 upper mandible. 



BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCH. (Sitta pusilla.) 



PLATE XV.— Fig. 2. 



Small Nuthatch, Catesby, Car. i. 22, upper figure. — La Petite Sitelle atete brune, 

 Buff. v. 474.—Peale's Museum, No. 2040.— Briss. iii. 958.— Lath. i. 651, C. 



SITTA PUSILLA.— Latham. 



Sitta pusilla, Bonap. St/nop. p. 97. 



This bird is chiefly an inhabitant of Virginia and the 

 southern States, and seems particularly fond of pine trees. 

 I have never yet discovered it either in Pennsylvania or any 

 of the regions north of this. Its manners are very similar to 

 those of the red-bellied nuthatch, represented in Plate II. ; 

 but its notes are more shrill and chirping. In the countries 

 it inhabits it is a constant resident ; and in winter associates 

 with parties of eight or ten of its own species, who hunt 

 busily from tree to tree, keeping up a perpetual screeping. 

 It is a frequent companion of the woodpecker figured beside 

 it ; and you rarely find the one in the woods without observing 

 or hearing the other not far off. It climbs equally in every 

 direction, on the smaller branches as well as on the body of 

 the tree, in search of its favourite food, small insects and their 

 larvae. It also feeds on the seeds of the pine tree. I have 

 never met with its nest. 



